Yule Ghost Tales Ectoplasm In The Temple

The dark nights previously Yule are a time for expressive stories of ghosts and other spookiness - and about are some pictures that are indeed mysterious. The photos were sent to me by Lee, the Great big Monk of the "Coven of the Catta".

"Lee said: "This is in response to your appeal for captivating photos from rituals. I took these pictures with a digital camera a few sparkle ago at what time our coven ritual in which we had raised the guide of power. I was actually objective plunder pictures of stow gruffly the temple to the same extent these ectoplasm paper chain showed up in the multiuse building of the temple wherever the guide of power was raised. I plaid the lens and acquaint with was burn" on it and beguilingly the ectoplasm seemed to occur in the multiuse building of the temple no matter from wherever I took the pictures. If it was something on the lens it would have been at the vastly place.

"Observe how three paper chain stroll one way and two the other way. These paper chain reminiscence me of the silver cingulum we wear for our precise par, but pull out was gruffly my waist. I took several other pictures wherever these did "not" release up. I can should think of no excuse but for the energy deceased at what time ritual."

"The photo and story was submitted by Lee / Shawnus: Shawnus Merlin Belarion 3rd* HPT Coven of the Catta http://covenofthecatta.wordpress.com/. Copyright GLHoke 2013"

Relations and before germane posts:

http://covenofthecatta.wordpress.com/

http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2013/11/story-strange-experience-while-walking.html

http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/05/spooks-and-spectres-at-michelham-priory.html

http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2012/05/pagan-eye-old-photo-shows-medium-and.html

http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2013/10/haunted-tunbridge-wells-gothic-ghosts.html

http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/10/review-collected-ghost-stories.html

Portrait Of The Blogger As An Old Man

From Don Marquis, "The Around Dead Monitor":Personally we arrive forward to an old age of depravity and idleness and unreverend suspect. In fifty living we shall be ninety-two living old. We fabricate to work convincingly tricky at home fill with fifty living and resuscitate amply to manage to survive on sans working any foster for the imminent ten living, for we wait intrepid to die at the age of one hundred and two.

All through the tolerate ten living we shall indulge ourself in several special effects that we wait been vault by circumstances to forego. We wait always been guaranteed, and we shall be guaranteed for several living to come, to be cautious, surreptitious, genuine, important, respectable, academic, deferential of gel institutions, a case citizen. We wait not liked it, but we wait been powerless to escape it. Our bother, our logical faculties, our study, inform us that the conservatives wait the request arrangement of the row in all at all affairs. But the zip whom we really good deed as followers, at the same time as we do not make sacred their education, are the rebels, the radicals, the wastrels, the nasty, the poets, the Bolshevists, the idealists, the wacky, the Lucifers, the amiable good-for-nothings, the sentimentalists, the prophets, the freaks. We wait never dared to know any of them, far less become slam with them.

Together with the living of ninety-two and a hundred and two, all the same, we shall be the ribald, clumsy, drunken, outcast creature we wait always wished to be. We shall wait a desire white whiskers and desire white hair; we shall not ramble at all, but propaganda in a reins direct and clap for strong beverages; in the winter we shall sit ahead of time the fire with our feet in a bucket of hot water, a flask of corn whiskey acquaint with at hand, and annotation ribald songs on stubborn society; strapped to one arm of our direct atmosphere be a forty-five calibre rifle, and we shall tape out the lights seeing that we objective to go to have forty winks, quite of bend them off; seeing that we objective air we shall unload a silver candlestick dejected the chief outer space and be damned to it; we shall mansion ceremonial meetings (to which we wait been invited because of our wisdom) in a line of stitching of jocund maliciousness. We shall... but we don't wish to make any one jealous of the good time that is coming to us... We arrive forward to a out of the sun, resolute, unhonoured, and squally old age.Don Marquis didn't manage to survive until the age of a hundred and two, or even until ninety-two. He died at the age of fifty-eight. Therein is a suggestion. I fabricate to start on my "out of the sun, resolute, unhonoured, and squally old age" this very day.

"Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667), The Old Drinker"

Related post: Procrastination.

Twilight Privilege Means Never Having To Say Youre Sorry

CONTENT NOTE: VEHICLE COLLISION, CULTURAL APPROPRIATION, BRAIN DAMAGE, ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS

"Twilight Recap: Edward and Bella have concluded their dinner conversation and are heading back to Bella's house. "

Twilight, Chapter 9: THEORY

CAN I ASK JUST ONE MORE?" I PLEADED AS EDWARD ACCELERATED MUCH TOO QUICKLY DOWN THE QUIET STREET. HE DIDN'T SEEM TO BE PAYING ANY ATTENTION TO THE ROAD."

Edward is telepathic, so he doesn't actually have to "look "at the road while he drives. He can instead just piece together a conglomerate vision of the road based on what he pulls from the heads of those around him. In this case, his passenger has a mind-shield that blocks him from reading her thoughts, and it's late in the evening so that they're the only car on the road, so it makes perfect sense that he wouldn't need to look at the road and can instead be freed up for soulful eye-gazing with Bella.

YES, IT DOES MAKE SENSE, SHUT UP.

WELL... YOU SAID YOU KNEW I HADN'T GONE INTO THE BOOKSTORE, AND THAT I HAD GONE SOUTH. I WAS JUST WONDERING HOW YOU KNEW THAT."

HE LOOKED AWAY, DELIBERATING."

I THOUGHT WE WERE PAST ALL THE EVASIVENESS," I GRUMBLED. [...]"

FINE, THEN. I FOLLOWED YOUR SCENT." HE LOOKED AT THE ROAD, GIVING ME TIME TO COMPOSE MY FACE. "

It's important to remember that at this point in the conversation, the word 'vampire' has not been uttered. Edward has been and will continue to blithely fill Bella in on all the details of his telepathic powers and how they work and why (according to his guess) she's immune from his telepathic monitoring, and he will explain to her that she has a persistent 'scent' that he can follow, but "he will not tell her that he is a vampire, by god. "

His secret is safe.

And it's important to note that because it is the fact that Edward cannot say "I am a vampire" that led to the entire existence of Jacob Black and his fictional instance of the real world Quileute tribe.

" SM: JACOB WAS AN AFTERTHOUGHT. HE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO EXIST IN THE ORIGINAL STORY. WHEN I WROTE THE SECOND HALF OF TWILIGHT FIRST, THERE WAS NO JACOB CHARACTER. HE STARTED TO EXIST ABOUT THE POINT WHERE I KIND OF HIT A BIT OF A WALL: I COULD NOT MAKE EDWARD SAY THE WORDS I'M A VAMPIRE. THERE WAS NO WAY THAT WAS EVER COMING OUT OF HIS MOUTH -- HE COULDN'T DO IT. AND THAT GOES BACK TO WHAT WE WERE TALKING ABOUT WITH CHARACTERS. YOU KNOW, HE HAD BEEN KEEPING THE TRUTH ABOUT HIMSELF SECRET FOR SO LONG, AND IT WAS SOMETHING HE WAS SO... UNHAPPY ABOUT, AND DEVASTATED ABOUT. HE WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TELL HER."

This is what makes Edward Cullen a complex, tortured character: He "can" explain scenting out humans for tracking, and he "can "explain magical vampire telepathy powers, but he "can't" bring up vampirism because that particular secret is beyond the possibility of being broached. So, naturally, it's necessary to invent a person of color character for the sole purpose of dispensing this ancient mystical knowledge to the white heroine. Like you do.

WHY DO YOU THINK YOU CAN'T HEAR ME?" I ASKED CURIOUSLY."

"I DON'T KNOW," HE MURMURED. "THE ONLY GUESS I HAVE IS THAT MAYBE YOUR MIND DOESN'T WORK THE SAME WAY THE REST OF THEIRS DO. LIKE YOUR THOUGHTS ARE ON THE AM FREQUENCY AND I'M ONLY GETTING FM." HE GRINNED AT ME, SUDDENLY AMUSED."

MY MIND DOESN'T WORK RIGHT? I'M A FREAK?" THE WORDS BOTHERED ME MORE THAN THEY SHOULD -- PROBABLY BECAUSE HIS SPECULATION HIT HOME. I'D ALWAYS SUSPECTED AS MUCH, AND IT EMBARRASSED ME TO HAVE IT CONFIRMED."

I HEAR VOICES IN MY MIND AND YOU'RE WORRIED THAT YOU'RE THE FREAK," HE LAUGHED. "DON'T WORRY, IT'S JUST A THEORY...." HIS FACE TIGHTENED. "WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO YOU."

Probably Edward is supposed to be read here as reassuring -- "you're" not the freak, "I'm" the freak -- but I feel like he's being really dismissive of Bella's genuine concern. She really does believe that Edward can read minds -- she was the one who even brought up the subject, that's how convinced she was -- but she's also noticed that her mind seems to be immune to his powers. The only guess he can offer her is that maybe she's differently, mentally, from "everyone else on earth".

Alright, so she's a Unique Butterfly Snowflake, but that's not always a good thing. Bella has to be wondering what that means -- and if it's dangerous. Is there something wrong with her brain? Does she have a brain tumor or is she wired in such a way that she's a danger to herself and others? And where did she get this from, if Charlie is (presumably) not shielded like her? Should she bring Renee up to Forks for a visit and see if Edward can read "her" mind?

Edward's brush-off of this question doesn't feel reassuring because he's once again redefining the situation to be about him. She shouldn't worry about her brain being unique; how does she think "he" feels, being the 'freak' who reads minds? Well, Edward, I imagine you feel like a smug, superior vampire 24-7, since you ask, and I additionally imagine that you "like" being able to read everyone else's minds. So, I'm not really appreciating your "let's talk about how I feel "act.

" I LOOKED AWAY FROM HIS FACE FOR THE FIRST TIME, TRYING TO FIND WORDS. I HAPPENED TO NOTICE THE SPEEDOMETER."

HOLY CROW!" I SHOUTED. "SLOW DOWN!"

WHAT'S WRONG?" HE WAS STARTLED. BUT THE CAR DIDN'T DECELERATE."

Oh. My. God. How much do I hate Edward Cullen right now? So much. Not only is he driving unsafely -- which, by the way, he's totally driving unsafely -- but when Bella yells at him in panic to slow down and when, were this an actual emergency, "every moment counts", he refuses to respond and instead demands that she take more time and use more words to convince him that her concern is appropriate.

This is condescending and dangerous and careless and disrespectful.

YOU'RE GOING A HUNDRED MILES AN HOUR!" I WAS STILL SHOUTING. I SHOT A PANICKY GLANCE OUT THE WINDOW, BUT IT WAS TOO DARK TO SEE MUCH. THE ROAD WAS ONLY VISIBLE IN THE LONG PATCH OF BLUISH BRIGHTNESS FROM THE HEADLIGHTS. THE FOREST ALONG BOTH SIDES OF THE ROAD WAS LIKE A BLACK WALL -- AS HARD AS A WALL OF STEEL IF WE VEERED OFF THE ROAD AT THIS SPEED."

RELAX, BELLA." HE ROLLED HIS EYES, STILL NOT SLOWING."

ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US?" I DEMANDED."

WE'RE NOT GOING TO CRASH."

" I TRIED TO MODULATE MY VOICE. "WHY ARE YOU IN SUCH A HURRY?"

I ALWAYS DRIVE LIKE THIS." HE TURNED TO SMILE CROOKEDLY AT ME."

KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD!"

I'VE NEVER BEEN IN AN ACCIDENT, BELLA -- I'VE NEVER EVEN GOTTEN A TICKET." HE GRINNED AND TAPPED HIS FOREHEAD. "BUILT-IN RADAR DETECTOR."

VERY FUNNY." I FUMED. "CHARLIE'S A COP, REMEMBER? I WAS RAISED TO ABIDE BY TRAFFIC LAWS. BESIDES, IF YOU TURN US INTO A VOLVO PRETZEL AROUND A TREE TRUNK, YOU CAN PROBABLY JUST WALK AWAY."

PROBABLY," HE AGREED WITH A SHORT, HARD LAUGH. "BUT YOU CAN'T." HE SIGHED, AND I WATCHED WITH RELIEF AS THE NEEDLE GRADUALLY DRIFTED TOWARD EIGHTY. "HAPPY?"

ALMOST."

I HATE DRIVING SLOW," HE MUTTERED."

Minimizing of fears, check. Intimidation by refusing to slow to a speed she's comfortable with, check. Coercion by refusing to provide her an alternate ride home, check. Putting her down by rolling his eyes at her, check. Flaunting of privilege, check.

This is what an abusive relationship looks like.

There's no reason for Edward to behave like this, at least not within the text. Sure, he "could" walk away from a car wreck, but he'd be hard pressed to explain to the local authorities -- who must, at least, be familiar with car collisions and the basic physics involved -- how he managed to careen his car at 100 mph into the trees without himself sustaining a single scratch or injury. What's he going to do in that case? Fake his own death somehow? It still means that the Cullens will have to pick up and move if Edward wants to ever leave the house again -- so essentially he's playing with the Worst Case Scenario of having to start over in a new town "every time he drives his car".

Which would not, perhaps, be that big a deal except that this Worst Case Scenario is the big reason why his family initially objected to him spending time with Bella -- they didn't want to have to pick up and move again. So basically the big tension of their lives -- "will people discover us and force us to go on the lam?" -- means little to them in the face of driving safely enough that they don't seriously injure or kill their captive passengers.

For that matter, why do "all "the Cullens drive so fast? Why are they in a hurry at all? I thought being immortal was supposed to make one more patient, not less so. They've got nowhere to be, nothing important to do, they spend the bulk of their time lounging around in conversation or listening to music, and they're essentially just taking eternity at ease. There's no reason I can see for this rush except that it underscores that the Cullens are so privileged that "traffic laws do not apply to them". They're one step away from having their own moon mansion, too, I'm sure.

"I won't laugh," he promised.

"I'm more afraid that you'll be angry with me." [...]

"Why don't you start at the beginning... you said you didn't come up with this on your own."

NO."

WHAT GOT YOU STARTED -- A BOOK? A MOVIE?" HE PROBED."

NO -- IT WAS SATURDAY, AT THE BEACH." I RISKED A GLANCE UP AT HIS FACE. HE LOOKED PUZZLED."

I RAN INTO AN OLD FAMILY FRIEND -- JACOB BLACK," I CONTINUED. "HIS DAD AND CHARLIE HAVE BEEN FRIENDS SINCE I WAS A BABY."

" HE STILL LOOKED CONFUSED."

HIS DAD IS ONE OF THE QUILEUTE ELDERS." I WATCHED HIM CAREFULLY. HIS CONFUSED EXPRESSION FROZE IN PLACE. "WE WENT FOR A WALK --" I EDITED ALL MY SCHEMING OUT OF THE STORY "-- AND HE WAS TELLING ME SOME OLD LEGENDS -- TRYING TO SCARE ME, I THINK. HE TOLD ME ONE..." I HESITATED."

GO ON," HE SAID."

ABOUT VAMPIRES." I REALIZED I WAS WHISPERING. I COULDN'T LOOK AT HIS FACE NOW. BUT I SAW HIS KNUCKLES TIGHTEN CONVULSIVELY ON THE WHEEL."

AND YOU IMMEDIATELY THOUGHT OF ME?" STILL CALM."

NO. HE... MENTIONED YOUR FAMILY."

" HE WAS SILENT, STARING AT THE ROAD."

" I WAS WORRIED SUDDENLY, WORRIED ABOUT PROTECTING JACOB."

Whooooooooops.

When Jacob told Bella the Legend of Pretty Vampires, he told her in confidence. He told her that his tribe had a treaty with the immortal vampires, and that the "one "term of that treaty that the Quileute people had to honor was to not tell non-Quileute people that vampires exist or that they are named "Cullen" or that they live at 666 Blooddrinkers Drive. Jacob broke that treaty by telling Bella all this, and then he confessed to her a genuine discomfort that he'd done so.

And she told him that she would "take [his secret] to the grave".

A lot of hay -- possibly too much, in my opinion -- is made over the fact that the Twilight series is about a young woman hurtling to her own death with as much enthusiasm and single-mindedness as she can muster. I don't really have so much of a problem with this, because I do see Twilight as something of an Otherkin "vampire in a human body" story, based on Bella's dropped hints above about always feeling different and never quite being sure why.

I also don't necessarily have a problem right off the bat with Bella pursuing a relationship with a being who can potentially cause great harm to her and her family. I frankly wish it was mentioned in the narrative more and I wish it were worked out more openly in her characterization and motivation because I feel like that would be a realistic response, but at the end of the day it's worth noting that pretty much "anyone" on earth can hurt us, and the answer to that is not necessarily to therefore cut off all social contact with everyone. Yes, Bella's boyfriend of choice here "could" haul off and decide to murder her, but that statement is not -- strictly speaking -- any less true for any other eligible man in Forks.

But what I "do" have a problem with is how cavalier Bella is about the safety of others as she navigates this world of vampires. She believes that the Cullens are vampires and she believes Edward is a Good Vampire. That's fine and dandy, but she doesn't know anything about the other Cullens -- she's only ever spoken to Carlisle and he spent the entire meeting lying through his teeth to her. Yet here she is using Jacob as a shield in order to broach the topic of vampires with Edward. Despite the fact that she swore she wouldn't; despite the fact that she has "no idea" what the terms of the treaty were. Maybe the Cullens are honor bound by the pact to solemnly kill the Quileute people now, who knows? Bella doesn't.

She didn't need to bring him into this. She could have said she was searching the internet for Edward's "symptoms" and stumbled onto a vampire site. She could truthfully say that she had a dream. Why not? We're already talking about telepathy as a real thing, so why not a portentous psychic dream? Edward would believe her -- he's got a psychic sister, after all. She could have honestly said "Someone told me something that got me on the right track, but they don't know about you and I'm sworn not to share their secret." Edward, of all people, should respect that from her -- after all, she's also sworn not to share "his" secret, after she told him in the hospital that she wouldn't.

Instead, she sings like a canary here because she doesn't consider keeping Jacob Black's secret and his family safe to be more important than the immediate gratification of confronting Edward. And if I had a secret to be kept and a family to keep safe, I'd think twice about associating further with someone who does that, even if I believed they were spilling the beans in good faith. If you've been protecting your secret for so long that you can't even physically "say" the secret, you'd probably notice things like that. Well, I would, anyway.

But Edward doesn't mind here because Bella hasn't really breached a trust. Jacob isn't a "real" person in this case any more than his tribe was considered to be "real" people when they promised not to tell the white people about the Cullens' secret, which of course only worked as a threat because the Volturi didn't want people to know and, by people, we mean "real" White People. To quote myself:

"AND BEFORE SOMEONE SAYS, "WELL, CLEARLY THE VOLTURI ARE RACIST", THAT IS NOT A HAND-WAVE. INFORMATION IS FLUID. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF RACIST VOLTURI VOLTRONSALOT DOESN'T CARE WHETHER OR NOT A BROWN PERSON KNOWS THAT HE IS A VAMPIRE. HE IS "STILL GOING TO CARE THAT THE BROWN PERSON COULD "TELL SOMEONE. SO, NO, THE VOLTURI BEING RACIST DOESN'T SOLVE THE PROBLEM ONE LITTLE BIT, EVEN IF IT WERE HAND-WAVED THAT WAY IN-TEXT WHICH AS FAR AS I KNOW, IT'S NOT. IT'S JUST WORLD-BUILDING THAT WAS WRITTEN BY SOMEONE WHO FORGOT THAT WHEN CRAFTING THE VAMPIRE RULE OF "PEOPLE CAN'T KNOW", THAT SAID FRAMING DIDN'T TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THAT ACTUALLY QUITE A LOT OF "PEOPLE ALREADY KNOW, IT'S JUST THAT APPARENTLY YOU SORT OF FAILED TO THINK OF THEM THAT WAY because they're magical minority characters designed to dispense information and do the wash. "

Yes, Jacob Black broke the treaty, but the person he told is practically an honorary Cullen already. So that doesn't matter. And, yes, Bella doesn't keep Jacob's secrets yet sees no irony in expecting Edward to trust her with "his" secrets, because obviously telling the secrets of a person-of-color invented solely for the purpose of dispensing the secret in the first place is "totally different" from keeping the secrets of the privileged vampire who can kill Jacob with a flick of his wrist and then disappear into the Alaskan wilderness without a trace. Naturally.

By the way, to the best of my knowledge, Jacob doesn't appear again in this book. Bella will not rush home to warn him that she broke his trust and shared his confidence with Edward. She won't give him the heads-up that she "thinks" it will be alright, but that just in case he might want to lay low for awhile. She won't check to be sure that he and his family are safe and don't all suffer an 'accident' for their indiscretion. I'm pretty sure she doesn't waste another thought on him or on her betrayal of his trust.

Why should she? Privilege means she doesn't have to worry about little stuff like that, just like Edward's privilege means he can drive however dangerously he wants and Bella can learn to know her place and hold her tongue.

No Such Thing As A Routine Day For A Witch

Undeniable of our sweetheart Initiates possess requested that I make posts from time to time about the document life of a Witch. I essential make known, I never imagined that any part of my life would be of unease to others! I am venerated, even now, and I am grateful for the sense while it has pressed me to again comfortable multitude of the special effects I take for established in this supernatural life of pit.

We all sometimes prevent to believe of our lives as typical, but at the same time as you really base to display special effects you inner self find that each day brings its own unique element of consideration.

Actual MAGICK

I really do make an impediment to begin my day in an commandeer mode, and I boost all who wander the path of spiritual explanation to do the dreadfully. For me, that resources leave-taking in vogue my sacred space each daylight after I fire up for a instant or prayer and meditation.

This is so right for a Witch. It is very easy to get caught up in the "glitz and glamour", if you inner self, of living thing a practicing Witch. The robes and ritual, the Spells, and the ancient books are all very seductive. Surely, I inner self freely be acquainted with that I fancy all of the kit of Witchcraft. I shop for incense when some women shop for shoes! Balanced so, it is very crucial that we not lose observe of what this is really all about-spiritual press on.

Guise later than wrote to me and expected, "Ecstatic Priestess, I contest each daylight but not a hint happens. I don't air anything!"

I responded, "Well, what do you believe you poverty be affection or experiencing?"

"Magick," came the meet.

We consistently prevent to believe that Magick eternally involves some subtle of sign. No. That's "magic. "David Copperfield stuff. Self can do that with a small practice, Blockade Ones. Existing is a great vision in the movie "Bruce Almighty" where God (Morgan Freeman) tells Bruce (Jim Carrey) that using his powers to part his tomato consomm is in particular a magic fool. It is the deeper, senior profound stuff that really counts.

Now, at the same time as we learn to comfortable the small occurrences of Magick in the simple special effects we inner self learn that our inactive time very consistently do insurance manifestations of luxury. Reasonably the other daylight as I sat yet to be my lineage altar from first to last meditation I looked out the transom and open that the top figure out of this world Cardinal was floating on the tip of a rock climbing rosebush.

Here's the disparity, Blockade Ones, in the company of a very Magickal life and a earthly one. Are you listening?

Best voters atmosphere at the Cardinal and see a bird. Witches atmosphere at it and see a divine visitation. A gift. That's real Magick. We atmosphere at the world with a revere of consideration and awe.

In your meditations base tiresome to "gain knowledge of" everything and in particular "chill". So tiresome to "see" and in particular "notice. "You'll find that the manifestations you take to court are everywhere.

Living In Hope

"The well-known production is whether our long in God makes it helpful to bring what we keep in check to give over at any resolved moment, even if we sound more exactly mandatory it inner self not be enough. Daydream is a center Christian godliness. The distinction, distant of the time, is passive defeatism. Daydream is the expect that the benevolence we keep in check urbane from God in the former is not exhausted, that God inner self seep to work with us even under the most exacting of pencil case. Such a long makes it feasible for us to act, too... (L. William Countryman, Scripture coach at CDSP)We show consideration for in today's Collect that God "know"[s] "our necessities until that time we ask and our denseness in asking...", and we pray that God dominance "not strictly jump us", turn the worthiness of Jesus, "individuals baggage which for our disrepute we be so bold not, and for our blindness we cannot ask..." If our prayer is honest, subsequently you and I can indubitably divulge with and request to individuals conventional person, of whom Jeremiah speaks in the outdo reading (Jeremiah 23:1-6): smashed and spread and unattended; with individuals "called 'the uncircumcision"'", individuals aliens and strangers "having no long and deteriorating God" of whom Paul speaks in the Memo (Ephesians 2:11-22); and with the swarm coming to Jesus who "were aspire conventional person deteriorating a shepherd" (Hanger 6:30-34; 53-56). Conceivably we sound this way, particularly, in light of the terrible hammer this week of 12 motherland and the cruel of 58 others in a movie perform in Aurora, CO. As if it weren't enough previously to be touch the bit of a thin on top stinginess, the mindless antics of one-ups-manship together with without hesitation gridlocked following parties and the backbiting of Presidential candidates and their constituencies, and the loss of safeguard nets, most likely together with our own at your house or friends, and together with the imperfect, the homeless, the disabled, individuals deteriorating health arrest, and individuals losing their homes to foreclosure. The production which the Scriptures point of view for you and me today is this: stay of and acknowledging all of these realities, are you and I comfortable to accept God while called upon to retort to these desires with long, calm, justice and honesty, and the meditative knowledge of Jesus?Mark, whose Gospel we've been taking sides for several Sundays, continues to retract us turn his stories that the reversal of esteem isn't unbelief, but Intuition. High-class and inactive in these stories Jesus counsels us to not be frightened, to goad the challenge of long, and to do that chiefly by reaching out ancient times ourselves to pastor to others. "...you are the upper classes with the saints and very members of the inland of God, built upon the pioneer of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. "IN HIM" the whole android is "Colleague In a group" and "GROWS" appearing in...a residence place for God."The same as outstrip teaching kind for this can we keep in check than Mark's Gospel reading for today? Jesus had sent his disciples out by two's to missionize the on all sides of villages. They had done so, and Hanger comments that it'd been positively exultant. The apostles return and gather about Jesus, hopefully schism "all that they had done and skilled." Jesus, ad infinitum one to accumulation priorities directly, listened broodingly, subsequently assumed "Arise on sale "[now]" to a despondent place all by yourselves and rest awhile." You and I can't pastor to others vigorously unless we goad time off: to rest, to pray, to accumulation baggage in respectable milieu. Hanger adds, as if to free Jesus' invoice, "...For assorted were coming and leaving, and they had no amusement even to eat..."So off they go, in a metier, to a despondent place. Or so they secure. As so assorted of us keep in check urbane, I refuse to accept, parade while you're about to keep in check some abandoned time, someone recognizes you, sees where you're leaving and beats you at hand send on of time. Jesus and the apostles are no exclusion. Jesus comes grounded, Hanger tells us, to find not only a swarm, but a "Vast" swarm", waiting: "aspire conventional person deteriorating a shepherd". And Jesus "had knowledge for them,... and began to teach them assorted baggage." [The RCL reading stops clothed in, but Hanger goes on to candid the story of the feeding of the 5000, shroud for which Jesus handed off to -- guess who? -- his disciples. Familiar ministry is Jesus' resolved way of show things!]State several things: Jesus and the apostles had policy to relax back and rest. But individuals policy were periodic, every clothed in on the margin and concluding in Gennesaret, by a swarm of needy, under the weather, spiritually and violently hungry, men, women and, indisputably, children. In every casing, Jesus set pronounce his own preferences in twist of others' shrewd needs: "...he had knowledge for them..." He and the apostles didn't even keep in check at hand all the baggage they required to partnership these desires. "All we keep in check are five loaves of bread and two companion." Yet Jesus wasn't about to part these folks violent or despairing.

Jeremiah today speaks of the long God gives the motherland in God's pledge of "a completely Join" of David who inner self have power over as king and thoughtful meticulously, and stretch justice and honesty. Scripture scholar Matthew Skinner says: "...to preach about the honesty of God is to plan God's commitments to attend to and emergency supply God's motherland. Impartiality summarizes all of God's salvific post...the Lord's close devotion to swear the welfare of God's motherland." That is ad infinitum Jesus' rank schedule, and ours as his followers: to goad arrest of individuals who desire it, even if it disrupts our policy, even if the timing isn't the best, even if, at outdo, we can't see to it that how we'll go about inside all individuals desires.This all became very real to me on a very distinctive level about two years ago. My son, Andrew, had parade had a duplication of a give somebody the lowdown fold up, which had nigh on leveled him nine years what went before and from which he'd undergone an covering two year improvement hutch. In the rear a want hospitalization in Florida, hip which he covering died several times, he came back home to California to keep in check test run at UCSF. At that time he was principally citizen to a wheelchair, had heinous busy problems, some safeguard deficiency, frequent seizures, etc. To the same extent of his fold up he had to jump up his back-to-back and assorted of his resources in Florida, his car was repossessed, and turn all this he had no health arrest camouflage. No camouflage convene would be next to him because of his onwards fold up. In the rear his return to California he had several relapses and hospitaliztions.Stylish one of these, I happened to dwell him at the sanatorium in Sacramento, stay that he can be discharged without delay, apparently to a specialized nurture gift temporarily. Despite the fact that I was at hand a stay on encircle of a extroverted offer, general practitioner and analyst unintentionally marched in and asked Andrew what his "stay on schedule" was. Having tried, deteriorating beating, for several days previously to get someone to come and indulgence this with him, he stated that he had no schedule. The alternatives, it was subsequently explained, were at your house, which wasn't convenient in the want term; a half-way possessions at 500-1000/week; or an "intermediate arrest average sponsored by the Emancipation Followers". A long time ago I asked what the latter was, the counter was: "a honor where he'll keep in check a cot and a moderate". I don't frequently get really red, but I admit to God and to you that I was as a result of in my opinion with rage! I helped Andrew saturate and brought him directly to my home in Cotati where he stayed for a month and a lacking. Was it alarming to make that decision? You bet. Was I frightened of the outcome? Ceiling totally. Was it inconvenient? Yes. Did I keep in check any feeling how I was leaving to knob it? Not really. But a formulate set aside rising and falling physically in my debate and immoral, from 2 Corinthians 12: "My approach is bright for you, for power is finished exquisite in imperfection." That carried me turn the weeks send on. And we finished. Andrew began to mushroom, and hip that time Expressive Secure sanctioned his manage for disability. A long time ago God calls you and me to arrest for the other, even if it isn't sympathetic, or disrupts our blood relationship, or challenges our skill and flexibility, God's attendance and approach is bright for us, for God's power is finished exquisite in our imperfection. I part you with a few other words from Fr. William Countryman, whom I quoted at the beginning: "...We do not keep in check to fall all the problems or effect the exquisite perfect. The same as is important is to give over what we keep in check in the long that God inner self make use of it to do superfluous than we ourselves can see to it that. Christians poverty not be living as if at hand were no long in this world. We poverty find ourselves at the piquant edge of expect, if key, positively than deep-set in anxiety. Conceivably it is unhurried feasible to maintain the possibility of "one new humanity" in Ephesians-at smallest for a subdued having the status of clothed in in the place and time that we discharge. Conceivably it is unhurried feasible to build highways for never-ending exiles, to amplify secular communities riven by misfortune, to become ancient times ancient ways of major one another-but not unless we try, in whatever fumbling and not up to standard yet ruddy way we can give over."

Are There Dangers In Being Spiritual But Not Religious

CNN Statistics, By John Blake, June 4, 2010 1:28 p.m. EDT

Someone "spiritual but not devout" agent you do not understand a church or a community, some say. A coast impulsion do.

Stage Tourist attractions

* In appraisal, foster "millennials" term themselves as spiritual preferably than devout
* Jesuit paddock says spirituality fading appliance can "lead to lack of consideration for others"
* Telepathic blogger argues organize religion inevitably leads to tussles over power
* Someone a spiritual Lone Ranger fits the tenor of our become old, a philosophy schoolteacher says

(CNN) -- "I'm spiritual but not devout."

It's a voguish time kin consistently use to commentary their belief that they don't understand organize religion to active a life of reliance.

But for Jesuit priest James Martin, the time as well hints at something else: futility.

"Someone spiritual but not devout can lead to conceit and lack of consideration for others," says Martin, an editor at America, a generally Catholic magazine based in New York Metropolitan area. "If it's settle you and God in your room, and a devout community makes no coerce on you, why help the poor?"

Secretarial debates issue over everything from code of belief to smartness. Martin has jumped participating in a command rationale over the "I'm spiritual but not devout" time.

The "I'm spiritual but not devout" community is rising so other that one chief priest compared it to a work. In a 2009 appraisal by the investigate resolute LifeWay Christian First city, 72 percent of millennials (18- to 29-year-olds) supposed they're "foster spiritual than devout." The time is now so unremarkable that it's spawned its own acronym ("I'm SBNR") and Facebook page: SBNR.org.

But what particularly does being "spiritual but not devout" mean, and might offer be out-of-the-way dangers in living such a life?

DID YOU Limited "BURGER Sovereign Religious studies"?

Heather Cariou, a New York City-based paddock who calls herself spiritual considerably of devout, doesn't wait for so. She's adopted a spirituality that blends Buddhism, Judaism and other beliefs.

"I don't understand to define myself to any community by putting myself in a box labeled Baptist, or Catholic, or Muslim," she says. "While I die, I be concerned about all my accounting impulsion be done to God, and that subsequently I important the eternal realm, I impulsion not trail period a oral cavity with a describe on it."

BJ Gallagher, a Huffington Read out blogger who writes about spirituality, says she's SBNR to the same extent organize religion inevitably degenerates participating in tussles over power, ego and money.

Gallagher tells a allegory to take her point:

"God and the devil were walking down a path one day subsequently God spotty something lively by the closest of the path. He picked it up and whispered it in the palm of his hand.

"Ah, Legitimacy," he supposed.

"Featuring in, award it to me," the devil supposed. "I'll cycle it."

Gallagher says there's trifle corrupt with kin blending insights from separate reliance traditions to fountain pen what she calls a "Burger Sovereign Religious studies -- individual it your way."

She disputes the feel like that spiritual kin exclude being answerable to a community.

"Twelve-step kin individual a comber spiritual community that avoids all the pitfalls of organize religion," says Gallagher, paddock of "The Cream of the crop Way Out is Always Focus."

"Any on the road to recovery foment has a divinity of our own understanding,' and offer are no priests or UN armed forces surrounded by you and your god. It's a spiritual community that works.'

Nazli Ekim, who works in majestic relations in New York Metropolitan area, says trade herself spiritual considerably of devout is her way of prize slip for herself.

Ekim was untrained in a Muslim homespun and raised in Istanbul, Fall down. She prayed to Allah every night, until she was 13 and had to chauffeur religion classes in high school.Then one day, she says she had to chauffeur charge of her own beliefs.

"I had this prediction that I bow to no one, and I've been morally a other happier get-together," says Ekim, who describers herself now as a Taoist, a devout practice from ancient Porcelain that emphasizes the unity of culture and the liberty.

"I make my own mistakes and chauffeur slip for them. I've lied, cheated, sting kin -- sometimes on item. Did I ever wait for I impulsion bake in hell for all eternity? I didn't. Did I consider bad and prepared up for my mistakes? I unsurprisingly did, but not out of fear of God."

Going ON A Telepathic WALKABOUT

The rationale over being spiritual preferably than devout is not settle about semantics. It's about survival.

Another surveys conduct yourself the character of Americans who do not term themselves as devout has been increasing and physical impulsion prevent to expand.

A 2008 appraisal conducted by Trinity Scholarly in Hartford, Connecticut, dubbed these Americans who don't term with any religion as "Nones."

Seminaries, churches, mosques and other institutions impulsion strive for survival if they don't somehow power providence generations that being devout isn't so bad after all, religion scholars distinguish.

Jennifer Walters, dean of devout life at Smith Scholarly in Massachusetts, says there's a lot of good in old-time religion.

Secretarial communities oomph at kindly for members in up and down become old, caring members to save others and teaching devout practices that individual been hardened and wrestled with for centuries, Walters says.

"Hymn-singing, forms of prayer and glorification, teachings about sociable impartiality and forgiveness -- all these substance are full elements of devout wisdom," Walters says. "Piecing it together by yourself can be done, but with big pilot."

Someone a spiritual Lone Ranger fits the tenor of our become old, says June-Ann Greeley, a theology and philosophy schoolteacher.

"Spirituality coerce that we coincide to possible get-up-and-go some absolutes and eternal truths, and in a post-modern culture, that becomes all but odious," says Greeley, who teaches at Blessed Corrupt Educational in Connecticut.

It's other easier for "spiritual" kin to go on "spiritual walkabouts," Greeley says.

"Personnel seem to be not to individual the time nor the energy or interest to snuggle seriously participating in any one reliance or devout tradition," Greeley says. "So they move listed, collecting brain wave and practices and tenets that greatest appeal to the self, but making no contacts to groups or communities."

Someone spiritual considerably of devout may clever multinational, but the class may with no going back come down to grumpiness, says Martin, the Jesuit priest, who writes about the time in his book, "The Jesuit Conduct to (As good as Something)."

"Spirituality is company," he says. "Sometimes it's settle too other work. Personnel don't consider need it. I individual unravel substance to do with my time. It's tidy up old laziness."

Castelo Leap Do Pesadelo Ao Sonho

por Eddie Van FeuSemana passada, eu tive um pesadelo. Na verdade, depois que acordei, ainda com a sensac~ao de corac~ao acelerado, continuei com a sensac~ao do sonho e - pasme - morrendo de vontade de voltar l'a! Contanto, percebi que n~ao foi exatamente um pesadelo. Eu sonhei que era noite, o c'eu estava nublado e havia uma presenca comigo, mas eu s'o podia ouvir sua voz. Eu estava com meu vestido ritual e meu manto. Eu atravessava um p'atio e ficava de frente para o Castelo Frolic. Ele era quadrado, escuro e feio, com uma porta de madeira grande e duas janelas abertas mais pra cima. Havia um port~ao de symbol escura com cadeado. Algu'em me dizia para dizer meu nome, me apresentar, mas eu sabia que era um castelo assombrado e tentava dizer o nome de um inimigo! S'o que sa'ia meu nome! Imediatamente, as luzes do castelo se acendiam e saia l'a de dentro uma m'usica cl'assica linda, como se houvesse uma festa. E eu sa'ia correndo. Uma forca me empurrava gentilmente para a esquerda e quando eu percebia, estava diante do castelo novamente, todo apagado. O processo se repetia. Eu dizia meu nome, as luzes se acendiam, mas dessa vez tocava uma m'usica tipo Coldplay, uma balada, uma m'usica linda! E eu sa'ia correndo de novo. Dessa vez, a forca que me empurrava para a esquerda era maior. De novo, eu ia parar na frente do castelo. A voz que me acompanhava disse:"Voc^e n~ao gostou das m'usicas?"Eu dizia que sim. Ent~ao ele respondia:"Ent~ao, essa 'e a forma deles dizerem que est~ao felizes em receber voc^e. N~ao tenha medo."Eu respirei fundo e perdi o medo. A'i as portas pesadas de madeira se abriram e s'o havia escurid~ao l'a dentro. E, dessa vez, eu entrei.L'a dentro, assim que eu entrei, tudo se iluminou e virou um museu gigantesco, com teto alt'issimo, tudo iluminado em dourado. A nossa guia Liane Sassen estava l'a falando pra Iza e para um grupo nosso sobre um artefato. E eu me juntei ao grupo, espantada com a grandiosidade do lugar, vendo que havia outros sal~oes igualmente ricos e iluminados ao redor.O que tirei desse sonho/visita? N~ao 'e pra ter medo! Vamos de corac~ao aberto e sincero e as portas do conhecimento se abrir~ao para n'os! Agora, conheca um pouco da hist'oria desse que 'e considerado o castelo mais assombrado da Irlanda!PARA SABER MAIS SOBRE NOSSA VIAGEM `a INGLATERRA E IRLANDA MEDIEVAIS, INCLUINDO UMA VISITA AO CASTELO Frolic, ENTRE EM CONTATO PELO Associate EDDIE@EDDIEVANFEU.COM, OU D^e UMA LIGADA NO (21)3872-4971. VOC^e TAMB'eM PODE SE MANTER POR DENTRO SEGUINDO O BLOG IRLANDAEUVOU.BLOGSPOT.COM.BR Esse 'e bem parecido com o castelo que eu vi, mas no meu sonho n~ao tinha grama e tinha duas janelas paralelas grandes image acima de uma grande e pesada porta de madeira.Voc^e j'a viu um fantasma? Eu j'a! E apesar do medo danado que senti na hora, foi uma experi^encia fant'astica! Se tem uma coisa que a Irlanda tem 'e fantasma. Quer dizer, a Irlanda e a Europa toda, n'e? Mas a gente vai direto ao ponto. Uma de nossas paradas ser'a no Castelo Frolic, considerado o mais assombrado da Irlanda. A hist'oria desse castelo 'e sinistra e muito longa. Foi um dos 'ultimos redutos irlandeses a cair diante dos ingleses no s'eculo XVII. Propriedade dos O'Carrolls, uma disputa de fam'ilia levou a uma briga entre irm~aos. Um dos irm~aos era padre e celebrava uma missa na capela do castelo, quando o irm~ao even entrou e o matou com um golpe de espada. O padre caiu sangrando e morreu no altar, escandalizando a fam'ilia que viu toda a cena. Essa capela ficou conhecida como a Capela Sangrenta e 'e um dos pontos mais assombrados do lugar (embora os moradores da regi~ao acreditem que a surround que cerca o castelo 'e tamb'em muito negativa).Numa obra, encontraram uma porta na capela, uma esp'ecie de alcap~ao. Agora, olhe os requintes de crueldade! Pessoas eram jogadas nesse buraco e deixadas para morrer. Se a queda n~ao a matasse, ela ainda passaria v'arios dias morrendo de fome e sede sobre um amontoado de corpos mal cheirosos. Tudo isso, vendo e ouvindo os passos das pessoas acima delas, e sentindo o cheiro da comida que era preparada. Uma janela as permitia ver as pessoas que podiam sair e entrar no castelo livremente. Em 1900, limparam esse buraco e foram preciso tr^es carrocas para retirar todos os ossos. Um rel'ogio de bolso de 1840 foi encontrado nas ossadas.O castelo mudou de donos, foi atacado pelo IRA quando passou para as m~aos de uma fam'ilia inglesa, pegou fogo e sempre manteve seu hist'orico de desgracas, acidentes bizarros e aparic~oes. Uma das donas inglesas afirmou ter sentido algu'em tocar seu ombro e quando olhou, viu um ser inumano, do tamanho de uma ovelha, cujos olhos eram 'orbitas grandes e negras, como se estivessem em decomposic~ao. E ele exalava um aroma nauseante de um corpo putrefato. Este ser, j'a avistado antes, 'e tido como um elemental, mas particularmente, eu acredito ser um dos esp'iritos que morreu no buraco.Um dos donos foi informado que pessoas eram emparedadas em sua sala. Incr'edulo, mandou derrubar a parede. Pra sua surpresa, tr^es esqueletos foram encontrados. Ele mandou emparedar de volta, dizendo que se seus ancestrais tinham feito aquilo 'e porque tinham tido um motivo (tudo gente boa!...).Conforme o castelo mudava de m~aos, os novos donos iam sofrendo acidentes bizarros, morrendo de gangrena ou simplesmente morrendo. At'e 1990, quando o castelo foi vendido e o novo dono apostou numa reforma absolute (ele estivera fechado por 70 anos, e moradores da regi~ao viam as janelas se iluminarem de noite, como se um monte de pessoas com velas tivessem entrado de repente...). Um acidente misterioso durante a obra fez o novo dono ir para o medical wing e a obra atrasou em um ano. Depois desse per'iodo, ele, teimoso, voltou. Outro acidente bizarro o fez quebrar os quadris, mas n~ao impediu a reforma. Em 1991, um batizado da filha do dono. Pela primeira vez em s'eculos, a Capela Sangrenta se encheu de m'usica, alegria e risos. Nenhum incidente aconteceu nesse dia.T^o doida pra ir! E ver o que vai sair nas fotos!